If you ever get the chance to play "court" tennis--even if only to take a lesson--you'd want to read the rules to get a general grasp of the game beforehand. Under the advice of the teaching pro, I did just that before taking my "one lesson" of court tennis at the In'tl Tennis HOF (Newport, R.I.) and it was worth the effort. Among the many quirks of the game, for example, there are times when it pays NOT to hit the ball. Playing the ball off the "penthouse" (that word again) is a fun feature of the game. One other thing: topspin? forget it. The racquets had "heads" that were slightly angled like hockey sticks so as to better "scoop" the low shots off the court deck. Very interesting albeit complex game. Part tennis, part squash, part chess (here's the Hall of Fame court at Newport):http://www.tennisfame.com/ithof.aspx?pgID=943

i played at the court at Cambridge once as well i'm sure it's the only real tennis court in Cambridge... that game is best played when tripping on acid!!! it is crazy! Racquets are way heavy as well, like 400 grams, maybe even more. Kinda fun once you get the hang of it though.

If anybody gets to play it, don't even think about picking up a normal tennis racquet the next day, your arm will be dead!

oh yeah, it's well dangerous too... the balls are hard and don't really have a predictable bounce.

Played at Chelsea Harbour in London once. Real tennis is fun as hell...its like a throwback to childhood where you make up all these nonsensical rules to accomodate the weird features of your lawn / living room / whatever. Throw in a Daliesque racquet and a ball that could have been cobbled together on your kitchen table...I encourage anyone to try it out if they get the chance.

My neighbour had a court
Played many times, usually under duress though as my Dad wanted a partner.

As an aside, has anyone played rackets? They had a court at my 6th form school. That is mental, like squash but a bigger court and a wooden ball + heavy racquets (woodies). Like squash but faster and the ball can bounce of the walls up to 6 times before bouncing. Crazy!